Lizzo Talks Body Representation, Texas Laws, and New Album
Lizzo's SXSW Keynote Speech Was a Lesson on Representation and Human Rights
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- Lizzo hopes her reality series will change the conversation around curvy women dancers: "Lizzo's Watch Out For the Big Grrrls" centres around the artist's search for backup dancers of all different sizes and backgrounds. During SXSW, Lizzo spoke on the significance of creating a new kind of dance competition show that we haven't seen before. "Ever since 2014, I've had open casting calls for dancers that look like me and it's been very difficult, especially the more I'm in the industry and we have these agency casting calls, I don't see me reflected in the dancers," she said. "Then one day I said, 'You know what, motherf*cker? If I got to get a TV show to bring some awareness to this, then pull up my sleeves and let's go.'" Her Prime Video series is a step in the right direction, but Lizzo believes we still have a long way to go in terms of real body representation. "Big girls have always had value, but I don't think society has seen the value in bigger bodies. And so what this show is doing, I wanted to lift these women up and show the world they're valuable, they're worthy, and they bring in money, baby. They bring in coins and duckets, so we need representation ASAP," she added.
- Lizzo slammed Texas's "regressive" anti-trans and abortion laws: Yee gave Lizzo the floor to speak on some of Texas's new laws, and she didn't hold back. "I'm proud to rep Houston but I'm not proud to rep Texan politics right now," said Lizzo. "There are very regressive laws being passed . . . They're taking away the right for young children to have a chance to live authentically as themselves. It's a violation of human rights. Trans rights are human rights, period." She added: "We got a lot of other things y'all need to be handling instead of y'all being in people's homes, telling them what to do with their bodies . . . Mind your business. Because the abortion ban is atrocious as well . . . stay out of my body. This is not political."
- Lizzo confirmed that her new album is done: After teasing new music, Lizzo finally gave the scoop on her forthcoming album. "I can finally tell everybody, as of, literally I'm flying back home today to master my album, it's done," she revealed. "It's done so it's coming very very soon . . . and it's good. I worked real hard on it, so it better be good." Lizzo also shared that snippets of her new music can be heard on episodes of "Lizzo's Watch Out For the Big Grrrls," though she remained tight-lipped about possible collaborations. However, she did promise that her album will be accompanied by a tour, in addition to "a lot of surprises."
- Lizzo was intentional about developing a reality TV series that catered to Black women: "Lizzo's Watch Out For the Big Grrrls" is a labour of love that she developed with series director Nneka Onuorah. Lizzo made sure to give Onuorah her flowers at SXSW for handling the show, as well as its stars, with such care during filming. "It's so important to have a Black woman at the helm of the camera, on this entire series," said Lizzo. "I think it was just important to realise that this is a very Black show . . . and I'm proud of it. We wanted to make sure that we created an environment, especially on camera, that could be conducive to having Black people and not have a stereotype." Yee inquired about the possibility of the show getting a second season, which Lizzo left up in the air, saying, "I think the door is wide open and anything is possible."